Forever and Always
by soundslikepeanuts
Summary: Enjolras hasn't come home from work yet, and Eponine is starting to worry something terrible has happened. MaryEvH made me sad with her beautiful story and now I want to make all of you sad. Modern AU Enjonine. Rated K for mention of sex and death. Inspired by Forever and Always by Parachute.


**This is entirely MaryEvH's fault, so this one's for her. Go read her fic "I remember you" if you feel like crying like a baby.**

**This fic was inspired by Forever and Always, by Parachute. I don't own that song, or Les Miserables.**

* * *

_She's sitting at the table  
The hour's getting later  
He was supposed to be here  
She's sure he would have called_

Éponine paced around the flat restlessly, periodically checking her phone for messages, gazing out the window in the hopes of seeing him ride up on that stupid motorcycle and bound up the stairs, laughing at her for worrying.

_Where IS he?! _she thought over and over again, exasperation and panic taking over. It was gone half past 8, and Enjolras was _never _this late. Sure, he stayed behind at work to finish a case sometimes, but he'd call. He always called. It was one of the things that attracted her to him after those first few dates: no waiting three days to feign disinterest for Enjolras; he called the next morning, at the very latest. "I just couldn't wait to talk to you again. Is that weird? I'm not weird, I swear!" he'd fretted down the phone, as she smiled bashfully at the other end, a tiny giggle escaping her lips. He'd been so cute, confident one minute and hopelessly unsure the next. Her poor heart didn't stand a chance.

She sat down at the kitchen table and tried to call him again, but it went straight to voicemail. _He must have a trial he forgot to tell me about that's run on. That's all, right?_ she tried desperately to convince herself. She repeated I'm_ sure he's fine _in her head, like a mantra.

_She waits a little longer  
There's no one in the driveway  
No one says they've seen him  
"Why, is something wrong?"_

It got to 9 o'clock and she couldn't sit still any longer. Grabbing her keys from the bowl by the door, she jogged down the stairs out onto the street, the cool Paris night air sending locks of her hair flying all over the place. She walked up and down the street, right to the next junctions, even looking up and down the main road at the end. The familiar sound of a motorbike engine reached her ears and she spun around, neck craning for a glimpse of him, finally home. He'd spot her on the corner and pull over, sweeping her into his lap for an amused kiss to reassure her, then insist she road back on the bike, even though it was only 200 feet or so. He'd even take his helmet off and give it to her. "Your head is more precious to me than mine" he'd say, kissing the front of the visor once it was down.

It wasn't him.

She called their friends as she walked up and down: Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Musichetta, Grantaire… nobody had heard anything. Marius and Bahorel didn't think he had any cases that day, but couldn't say for sure. Joly's phone went straight to voicemail; he must be on a shift. Everyone's response was the same: "why, is something wrong?"

She decided to knock on a few doors: the old lady downstairs who Enjolras visited sometimes; the poor family on the second floor; Martin and Julia in the flat opposite. None of them had seen or heard from him, and only Julia had seemed at all worried.  
"Are you ok, Éponine? Has something happened?"  
"No, I'm sure everything's fine… he's just never this late, is all. I'm just fretting, he'll have got talking to a client or something, or ended up caught in some protest or other on the way home…"  
"I'm sure you're right, that's our Enjolras!"  
It was completely irrational, and she knew it, but her skin prickled at that. _MY Enjolras. He's MY Enjolras. And he'd have called if it was that.  
_"Are you sure you're ok? Do you want to wait in here?"  
"No, no thanks. I'd better get back, make sure he's not come back in. Thanks, though."  
"No problem! Do let us know if there's any news?"  
"Sure. Thanks, Julia."

She opened the door back into the flat, looking around hopefully for the familiar lanky frame bent over a cup of coffee at the table, or reading the post in the kitchen.

"Enjolras? Are you here?" she called out, but there was no reply.

_Maybe he's leaving me _she thought suddenly, with an uncomfortable twist in her gut. _But things have been so good recently! I just moved in, and after December, everything's been perfect! _She walked through into their bedroom to put her nerves to rest, throwing open their wardrobe doors in a mild panic; but his suits all still hung there beside her clothes, and his weekend clothes were still neatly folded below them. _Of course he's not leaving _she chastised herself. Everything was still there, down to the pictures of the two of them from over the years tucked into the mirror.

_She looks back to the window  
Suddenly, the phone rings.  
A voice says something's happened  
That she should come right now_

She gazed over to the bedroom window, framed by the cheap red and blue curtains she'd found in a charity shop. The last of the light had finally gone, leaving the sky a deep, cold, midnight blue. The city of light below it, of course, was still as alive as ever. In the distance she could see Notre Dame, the windows lit up in all their glory.

The silence was broken with a sudden, harsh burst of sound. Her phone was ringing! She ran through into the living room where she'd left it, grabbing it off the table without pausing to check the ID.

"Hello?! Enj, is that you?!"  
"Miss Éponine Thénardier?" an unfamiliar woman's voice greeted her from the end of the phone and her stomach knotted unpleasantly.  
"Yes, that's me, who's this?" she asked, the panic evident in her voice.  
"My name is June; I'm calling from L'Hôpital Saint-Louis. We recently admitted a Gabriel Enjolras to the emergency room, and one of our Doctors told us we should call you."  
"Oh my God, is he ok?! Has something happened?!"  
"I'm sorry to say he's been involved in an accident; he's in theatre right now, but you should try and get here as soon as you can." June said gently, in the voice one only develops after giving a lot of people a lot of bad news.  
"Oh my God! Is he ok?!"  
"He's in surgery at the minute, so I'm afraid I don't know. He's definitely still alive."  
_Still alive?! But that makes it sound… _"I'll be there as soon as I can, thank you." Éponine replied as calmly as she could, before hanging up the phone, grabbing the keys and a jacket and running out down into the street.

"TAXI!" She shouted, piling into the back of the first one that pulled up. "L'Hôpital Saint-Louis, as quickly as you can, please!"

_Her mind goes to December  
She thinks of when he asked her  
He'd been down on his knee first  
And he'd said_

Éponine leant back against the headrest in the taxi, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. She called Combeferre, but the line was engaged. She supposed Joly would have told June to ring him too.

She must look a right sight, she thought. Big black leather laced boots and a delicate white sundress, covered with a black leather jacket, her ratty, unbrushed-for-several-hours hair around her shoulders, bare-faced and trying not to cry. She twisted her hair back into a simple messy bun at her nape, leaving just her short side-fringe to her face; it would at least get most of it out of her face. She wished she had a lipstick, then realised how irrational it was that _that _was what she was wishing for.

With nothing left to distract her, her mind spiralled into a panic. What would she do without him?! He was her whole life; the whole reason she was even still breathing, let alone the happy person she was today. When the tall, serious man with the mop of blonde curls walked into the bakery she worked in and grinned at her that day, her life had changed forever, and unquestionably for the much, much better. She knew she liked him from the moment he ordered that marshmallow teacake. Looking back now, she knew she loved him when he came back for another one every day that week.

The other moment replaying over and over in her mind was the moment he asked her to marry him; just 6 months before. He'd told her they were going to dinner at Marius and Cosette's, then driven up to the north of the city to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. They'd walked through the park and had a picnic dinner with strawberries and champagne, before climbing the hill to reach a waterfall, cut into the wall of a cave. After she walked closer to the bottom of the waterfall, her hands outstretched to catch the drops of spray, she turned her head around, laughing, to look at him, and found him down on one knee beside her, holding a small wooden box outstretched in her direction, and the same goofy grin on his beautiful face as the day she met him.

She'd covered her mouth with her hands, completely taken by surprise, and turned to look at him in the warm pink light of the sunset.

"Éponine" he'd said. "When I walked into that little bakery near the law school on a rainy Thursday morning, the last thing I ever expected was to fall in love with the beautiful, hilarious, brilliantly clever girl behind the desk. But there you were, with your wide smile and your dimples, and those big brown eyes full of wonder and stardust. When - for reasons that will forever be beyond me – you agreed to go out with me, I knew I wanted you more than I'd ever wanted anyone before. Three years on, I love you more than I could ever have believed possible. So here I am, on a surprisingly bumpy cave floor –" she laughed at that, a teary chuckle. "- to ask you to make me the happiest man in the world."

She'd just about held it together at that point, but at his next words, she felt she had physically melted

"_I want you forever.  
Forever and always.  
Through the good, and the bad and the ugly.  
We'll grow old together,  
Forever and always._

Will you be my wife, Éponine_?"_

Tears streaming down her face, she'd burst out "Yes! God, of course I will, yes!"  
He couldn't keep the happy surprise from showing on his face, even as she started to laugh, repeated "Yes!"s falling through her lips as she grinned and cried. He'd jumped up, gathering her up from the floor into his arms, kissing her like he'd never kissed her before. As the other people in the cave started to applaud, he placed her gently back onto the floor. She held tightly onto his hand as they beamed around the cave in gratitude.

"Don't forget the ring!" An old man called, and they almost jumped into action, laughing.  
"God, I can't believe I forgot the ring" Enjolras had mumbled, laughing bashfully but joyously.  
"I can't believe I accepted without it" she'd joked back, and the whole cave joined in with the laughter.

He opened the box, and her hand came back up to her mouth, her eyes filling with fresh tears. The ring was beautiful: a thin white gold band which filigreed at the front, where a beautiful diamond was set into a square base. "It was my Great-Grandmother's," he explained. "The nice one. My Great-Grandfather bought her it in the 1920s when he proposed." When she still couldn't speak, he continued a little worriedly "if you hate it it's fine, I can get a new one, I just thought -" _No!  
_"No! No, it's perfect, I love it!" she said through her tears.  
"Really? You do?"  
"I wouldn't have picked _anything_ else"  
He grinned again. "Should I…?"  
"Oh! Yes!" she laughed, and she held out her left hand. He slid the ring onto her fourth finger; it fit perfectly. And then she leant up to kiss him again, as the cave once more erupted into applause.

The ring was still there as she sat in the back of a too-warm cab on the longest taxi ride of her life, and she stretched out her fingers in front of her to admire it again as her eyes filled with yet more tears. For the first time in years, she prayed. _God, please don't make me live without him. I don't know if I can._

_She pulls up to the entrance  
She walks right to the front desk  
They lead her down a million halls,  
a maze that's never-ending  
They talk about what happened  
But she can barely hear them_

She paid the cabbie and walked as fast as she could to the front desk. "Gabriel Enjolras?!" she burst out. "I got a call…"  
"Éponine?" a small, round woman called out from the room behind the desk.  
"Yes?!"  
"I'll take this one" the woman said to her colleagues. "I'm June, we spoke on the phone? Please, follow me, Miss… sorry, I forget?"  
"Éponine's fine… thank you."

She followed June through the corridors, through endless double doors and past endless wards, her eyes frantically scanning the wounded faces for her fiancée's. Desperate to stay outwardly calm, she held all the swirling emotions inside until she thought she might burst. June talked to her the whole way there, but she only heard snippets through the fog of terror in her mind; words like "accident" "hit-and-run" "fractured" "a lot of blood", and then the two that chilled her most of all "critical" "waiting".

After what seemed like forever, June stopped, laying a gentle hand on Éponine's arm to snap her out of her daze. "He's in here. Are you going to be ok?" she asked, her eyes searching Éponine's."  
"Yes. Thank you." Éponine replied a little frantically. June opened the heavy door into the Intensive Care Ward, allowing her to go through.

And that was when she saw him. His big, lanky body seemed to shrink into the bed, covered in seemingly countless tubes, surrounded by dozens of blinking, beeping machines. His handsome face covered in cuts; some sewn up, others simply cleaned. The huge, white bandage wrapped around his middle. The almost worryingly peaceful look on his face.

_She tries to keep a straight face as she walks into the room  
She sits by his bedside, holds his hand too tight_

She fought back the tears as she rushed to his side, holding his big, too-cold hand in her two small ones with a squeeze. "Enj? Enj I'm here, it's Éponine. Are you ok, baby?"  
His impossibly blue eyes fluttered open, and he turned his head to look at her. "Éponine, you're here, thank God" he croaked. "I'm so sorry…"  
"Don't you dare apologise, I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner!" she replied, her voice starting to wobble as she stood up and leaned over to kiss him, burying her head in the crook of his neck while keeping as much of her weight off him as she could.

She sat back in the seat, her worried eyes searching his face endlessly. He told her what he knew of what happened: how the car had come out of nowhere, driving way too quickly, and crashed into him sideways on. How a stranger had called him an ambulance when the car just drove away. How he'd been conscious until he got here, when everything went dark.

Joly came in at this point, and she threw her arms around his neck before he told her what happened next, once she'd returned to Enjolras' side. "The surgery seems to have been a success" he said "but it's really too early to say. You've lost a lot of blood, mate. We've got a hell of a fight on our hands."  
"Since when did I ever back down from a fight?" Enjolras had croaked weakly, with a lopsided smile.  
"If anyone can do it" Joly agreed, "it's you."

_They talk about the kids they're going to have,  
And the good life  
The house on the hillside, where they would stay  
Stay there forever,  
Forever and always  
Through the good and the bad and the ugly_

_They'd grow old together  
And always remember  
Whether rich or for poor or for better  
They'd still love each other  
Forever and always._

He squeezed her hand, his blue eyes looking seriously into her brown ones, which were misty with tears. "I'm going to fight this, babe. I'll be fine, I'll get through it. I'll fight."  
"But -" she mumbled tearfully.  
"No buts, ok?" he teased. "I've got a date to keep in a few weeks' time."  
"I should cancel the wedding; you can't go like this…"  
"Don't you dare, Thénardier. I'll have to be cold in my grave to be kept from that church."  
"That's not funny" she protested.  
"Ép, I'm just sick of not being married to you. I want to wake up every morning next to Mrs Éponine Enjolras. I want the house you always dreamed of, with the balcony overlooking the river."  
"And the giant double bed?" she asked tearfully, a smile breaking through at last.  
"Of course! We'll need it for all the sex we're going to have" he joked with a wink, and she laughed.  
"Who says you're getting any now, Scarface?"  
"My scars are sexy as hell. You'll barely be able to keep your hands off me and my war wounds. I've finally become ruggedly handsome, after all my years of trying"  
She laughed, a watery giggle. "You've always been handsome" she pointed out.  
"Lucky thing too, or I'd never have gotten that beautiful girl from the bakery to agree to a date." He smiled at her, and she smiled back.  
"Seriously, Ép. I'm getting out of here."  
"OK" she agreed.  
"Who needs a spleen?"  
"Not you."  
"Pffft! Who even knows what spleens do?!"  
She laughed. Suddenly, even though she wasn't sure, she knew she had to tell him. "Hey, Enj?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I erm… don't freak out, ok? Don't you dare hurt yourself. It's just, you know after 'Chetta's birthday, when we… you know, in the car?"  
He grinned "yeah, I remember. I'll never forget…"  
"Well, the thing is, I'm… well, I'm late."  
He stared at her silently. "Late?"  
"Yeah, like… my period."  
Enjolras' eyes lit up. "Does… does that mean…?"  
"I don't know, but… I think so" she uttered bashfully, gauging his reaction. She knew the plan had been to wait a few years, until they were settled, but…  
"Oh, Éponine, really?! This is the best news ever, I can't believe it – get your ass over here and kiss me" he instructed, raising his other arm to beckon her over. She kissed him heartily, grinning into his joyful mouth, his hand cupping the side of her face softly, then moving down to her belly, hidden beneath the flimsy fabric of her white, strappy sundress.  
"I felt it kick!" he exclaimed, his voice full of child-like wonder and happiness as he looked up at her in surprise.  
She laughed a little as she said "it doesn't have legs yet, idiot"  
"I don't care, I felt it kick" he insisted.  
The tears welled up again as she buried her face in his neck.  
"If it's a girl" he said into her hair "call her Azelma, after your sister."  
"Middle name" she protested. "First name Emilia, after your Great-Grandmother"  
He kissed her hair, his eyes closed. "Perfect"  
"If it's a boy, Jean Maximilien" she continued. She felt him freeze.  
"After Lamarque?" he asked, sounding genuinely stunned.  
She straightened up to nod at him, smiling.  
He shook his head, laughing. "I didn't think I could love you more" Enjolras announced. "But then you go and prove me wrong, again and again."  
She laughed "I love you too" she told him, and meant it.  
"And there's the best thing of all" he replied.

_Then she gets an idea,  
And calls in the nurses._

They talked for a while longer, about them, and their friends and the baby. About their future. About the wedding. He insisted he was fine, that he felt better than before, but she saw in his eyes that he was flagging. His speech was getting slower, his eyelids heavier. No matter how he tried to hide it, she saw the grimaces as he shifted his weight. And she saw the pain in those beautiful blue eyes.

She had a sudden thought. "Wait here" she instructed, before bounding out the door.  
"Well, obviously…" he laughed, at her retreating back. She flashed a smile back at him through the door. _This is going to be perfect._

On her way to the nurses' station, she bumped into Les Amis, who all looked as frantic as she felt. She explained the plan, and told them to meet her in his room in ten minutes, then rushed around to get everything she needed.

_She brings up the chaplain  
and he says a couple verses  
She borrows some rings  
from the couple next door  
Everybody's laughing as the tears fall on the floor._

Fifteen minutes later, they were all in the hospital room; Enjolras in bed, Combeferre by his right hand side, with the rest of their friends, the family of the man next door and most of the doctors and nurses sitting or standing around them. The boys hummed Here Comes the Bride as Éponine walked in, holding a bunch of over-fragranced, too-bright flowers, flanked by Musichetta and Cosette, holding smaller versions. She stood by his bedside, facing the Hospital Chaplain, who stood at the end of the bed and spoke a few verses about love, commitment and faithfulness, as Éponine and Enjolras held each other's hands tightly, and tried valiantly not to cry.

After a brief panic when the Chaplain asked for the rings, the next-door family handed theirs over for the purposes of the ceremony. Éponine thanked them gratefully, then turned to look into the eyes of the love of her life and said:

"Enjolras, _I want you forever.  
Forever and always.  
Through the good, and the bad and the ugly.  
We'll grow old together,  
And always remember  
Whether happy or sad, or whatever  
We'll still love each other  
Forever and always_"

There wasn't a dry eye in the room, and as she looked over at her best friends, they shared a watery chuckle at their emotions, before she turned back to Enjolras and whispered "Forever and always."  
"Forever and always" he repeated, his voice a mere croak.

She slid the ring onto his finger. The tears were really flowing now; it didn't matter that it was too small to go right down his finger. It was a real wedding ring. She was marrying Enjolras, the love of her life.

_She finishes the vows but  
the beeps are getting too slow,  
His voice is almost too low, as he says_

The chaplain handed Enjolras the second of the rings, as the room sniffled together, repressing sobs behind their smiles.

He looked deep into her eyes, raising his free hand to weakly cup her cheek. She held it there with her own, taking the weight, as he rasped out

"_Éponine, I  
Love you forever  
Forever and always  
Please just remember,  
Even if I'm not there.  
I'll always love you,  
Forever and always._

He coughed, the sound shaking his entire body, before sliding the ring onto her finger; it was far too big and almost fell back off, but as he did it he barely whispered "I'll _always _love you. You and our baby. I promise, ok? I'll never leave you."

As the chaplain pronounced them man and wife, and the room erupted in applause, she leaned over and kissed him, pouring every emotion, every hope, every dream, every bit of love she'd ever felt for him into the kiss, and she felt him doing the same back. Never had her heart been so full.

It was only as they signed the register, held out for them by the chaplain – hers a rough, illegible scrawl as ever, his a wobbly "G. E." – that she knew it was the end. He looked into her eyes, and even through the tears she could see the pain he was in.

"I love you." she told him. "I'll always love you."  
His eyes shut for a second, and for a terrible second she thought that was it. But he opened them one last time, looking into her face with that same goofy grin she fell in love with, and replied "You too. Forever and always."

He squeezed her hand, and then closed his eyes. Right then, she knew it was the end. He breathed his last breath, and the endless machines started to shout at them; loud beeps and buzzers and tones. Joly and the nurses jumped into action with the defibrillator, but they all knew it was no good, including Éponine. When Joly called it, barely getting the time of death out before breaking down in sobs, Éponine just slid down onto the floor by his bed, her knees pulled up towards her and her hand on her forehead as she sobbed her heart out.

He was gone. He was really gone. And she was all alone.

* * *

The funeral was one of the best-attended, and most emotional affairs that Père Lachaise cemetery had ever seen. Éponine stood beside the grave for hours, shaking hands and accepting condolences. If it hadn't been for Combeferre stood beside her for comfort, she didn't think she could have borne it at all.

The simple stone headstone read

_Gabriel Francois Enjolras  
Born 23__rd__ September 1988  
Died 16__th__ June 2014_

_Beloved husband, friend and father  
Forever and always._

with a space below for Éponine's name.

Emilia Azelma Gabrielle Enjolras was born on the 14th of June 2015, with huge brown eyes and a mop of curly blonde hair. Between her Mother, and swarm of Aunties and Uncles, Emilia was the most loved child in all of Paris. And really, if they couldn't have Enjolras back, that was the only happy ending that any of them would ever have wanted.

* * *

**Please review! :) Thanks for reading, guys!**

***UPDATE* - to the guest reviewer (I can't reply to you directly sorry) that's so weird that you wrote basically the same thing! I can only apologise, but I haven't read yours, so just a case of having same idea. Glad you liked my version though!**


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